Experience Awesome Nature In Iceberg Alley, Along The Labrador and Newfoundland Coasts

This is a piece inspired by our recent Earth Day, and a real find for intrepid travelers looking for something different. It'd about becoming an "iceberg chaser," in Iceberg Alley, even just once.

Icebergs from snow-white to deep aquamarine, in every shape and size, float from the Arctic every spring to Iceberg Alley -- Labrador and the island of Newfoundland along the northern and eastern coasts. One of these bergs sank the Titanic in the North Atlantic, 400 miles from this coast.

I've been to Greenland and have watched glaciers melt into the sea -- and the rate in the 10 years since I was there has increased dramatically, due to global warming. The International Ice Patrol of the United States Coast Guard estimates that the number of icebergs drifting into the North Atlantic shipping lanes in April is usually around 80. But this April, over 600 icebergs have already loomed large along the northern North American coast -- a number usually not reached until late May or early June.

How do these bergs float all the way from Greenland? The huge frozen chunks of broken glacier drift into the southbound Labrador Current and then continue along Iceberg Alley into the warmer waters of lower latitudes, becoming smaller and smaller, huge numbers of them melting into the ocean.

The International Ice Patrol flies over the north Atlantic searching for icebergs every other week during iceberg season, from February to July. The patrol, organized by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by 18 nations, has searched the waters since the year following the Titanic disaster. (Photo: Harry Gerwin/Getty Images)

The icebergs we see along the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts are at the end of their existence, which began maybe 10- 15,000 years before in a Greenland snowfall during the last ice age. They broke off, probably sometime in the last three years.

Crashing into one another as they go, the icebergs arrive shrinking and developing cracks, and pouring out floods of meltwater. As temperatures warm, some bergs may drift close to shore, scraping the shallower coastal ocean floor and coming under immense pressure as the seawater stops supporting them. Low tides and heavy winds can cause these bergs to run aground.

And that's what draws tourists, who especially enjoy watching the dramatic falls and thundering splashes from bergs up to 15 stories above the waterline — only about 10 percent of their mass.

An iceberg off the Canadian coast. (Photo: Paul Daly/The Canadian Press, via AP)

Just like viewing the polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba, this berg floatation has become an annual tourist event along Iceberg Alley. If you're interested in becoming an "iceberg chaser" traveling to Iceberg Alley in Labrador and Newfoundland, several local companies have created tours. You can go on a boat tour, paddle along in a sea kayak or hike along the coastline and watch the sparkling iceberg parade. As a bonus, thousands of whales and millions of seabirds migrate north late in the spring and early summer, including humpbacks, gannets and puffins.

I've been around the block -- as in seven continents and over 130 countries from Andorra to Zambia. I speak regularly at The New York Times Travel Show, and have blogged about travel at Huffpost, Salon, and the Daily Beast. I've written for The New York Times, The Miami Hera...